by Jen Silver
“But…I always thought you two were happy together.”
“We’re good friends, Dario. So, yes, we’re happy in each other’s company. But that’s all it is, friendship.”
Andi noticed that the girl was gripping Dario’s knee and watching his face. She looked like she understood the mixed feelings he was experiencing. Perhaps she could help him understand the situation.
“So, you two are engaged. How did you meet?” Freya addressed the girl.
“We work together on a cruise ship. River cruises in Europe. I’m a tour guide and Dario’s a chef.” These were the first words the girl had spoken and it sounded like she was British.
“Sorry, but we still don’t know your name.”
“Tara. I’m from Yorkshire.”
Andi caught Freya’s reaction out of the corner of her eye and was startled when she said, “Were you planning to visit your parents while you’re here?”
“Yes. I left a message for my mum before we left the ship, but she hasn’t got back to me.”
“Well, actually, your mother is here.”
“What?”
“She arrived today.”
Andi looked closely at Tara and immediately caught the resemblance that Freya had clearly spotted right away.
“What’s she doing here? She doesn’t play golf.”
“She might be wanting to learn.” Freya caught Andi’s eye and winked. “Look, there’s time before dinner. Why don’t I take you over to her chalet, and Dario and Andi can have a chat?”
†
After Freya brought her back to the chalet, Lydia paced around for a while. She knew she wasn’t fit to drive so there was really no alternative. She would have to stay the night.
Opening her suitcase, she took out her toiletries bag and went into the bathroom. Might as well make full use of the facilities, she thought. Lady Temperley’s generosity had surprised her. She’d expected more of a fight to get her money back.
Following a hot shower and change of clothes, she felt refreshed in body if not in spirit. It would be a long, lonely night if she stayed in the chalet the whole time. Although tempted to hide away until the morning and take up the offer of room service, she decided to go to the manor for dinner. There might be a possibility of getting Beth on her own. The more she thought about it, the more she thought she couldn’t leave without speaking to her. Without the unsettling presence of Sam Wade.
A knock on the door brought her out of this reverie. “Come in.” If it was a chambermaid with more towels she would turn her away. However, the person who stood silhouetted in the doorway was the last she could have expected to see.
“Tara?”
“Hi, mum.”
They weren’t usually very demonstrative with each other, but Lydia pulled her into a hug and smiled at her daughter’s surprise at such an effusive greeting.
“Come and sit down,” Lydia invited once she’d let her go. “This is wonderful. But I thought you couldn’t get time off in the summer.” They sat down next to each other on the sofa, and Lydia held onto Tara’s hand.
“It was just meant to be a quick trip. Dario’s uncle sent him tickets for the Charity Shield match at Wembley. We expected to see him play, but he wasn’t even on the bench.”
“Is Dario here too?
“Yes.”
“Oh, that’s even more wonderful. I’m looking forward to meeting him. But it still doesn’t explain why you’re here. This is a long way from Wembley.”
“Dario thought his uncle was here visiting his wife. But then he saw the tweets and now he’s really upset and confused.”
“What tweets?” Lydia wasn’t a user of social media but she was aware of the power of sites like Twitter and Facebook in the lives of the youngsters at the school.
“Goran, that’s his uncle, had tweeted that he was getting married.”
“But you said he was visiting his wife here.”
“Yes, I guess that’s the thing that’s really bothering Dario. He and Andi have always been good friends. He’s still trying to get his head around the news that his uncle is gay. You see, Goran wants to marry his boyfriend. That’s what the tweets were about.”
“Andi?”
“Yes. She’s a pro golfer. It seems they got married so they could pretend they were straight. I mean, why would they need to do that? Who cares anymore?”
Lydia let go of Tara’s hand. Andi was the woman who had been with Lady Temperley. Wrapped up in her own emotions, she hadn’t made any connection between them other than that they were two women who had been playing golf together when she ran into them. In the short time she had spent in their company, though, it was clear something was going on between the lady of the manor and the tall, dark-haired woman. Lydia wondered how many people she’d been fooling over the past year. Had other people read the connection between her and Beth with such ease?
“Anyway, what are you doing here, mum?”
“I’m, well, I’m visiting a friend. She’s learning to play golf and was enthusiastic about this place. I thought I would come and see for myself.” It was pretty weak, Lydia thought, but the best she could come up with on the spur of the moment, and fairly close to the truth.
Chapter Thirteen
Beth breathed in the freshness of the air as she walked up the track. She had been breathing in fresh air all day, especially down on the beach, but the presence of both Sam and Jordan had left her with a claustrophobic feeling. She wasn’t sure that she was doing the right thing. While the others had been talking in the bar, she suddenly realised there was one good way to find out.
Lydia opened the door of the chalet before she had a chance to raise her hand to knock. With her hair hanging loosely across her shoulders, dressed in jeans and an informal cotton blouse, Lydia looked younger. Beth thought the casual look suited her. In their time together, even on weekends, Lydia always dressed the part of the head teacher, elegantly attired even when she was only going grocery shopping. She was always wary of meeting staff or students whenever she went out of the house.
“Oh. We were just going down to the manor.” Her cool tone of voice gave nothing away.
“Right. I just thought, hoped we might have a chance to talk. I didn’t want to leave it…”
The younger version of Lydia peered over her shoulder. “Hi.”
Lydia stepped out onto the porch and her daughter joined her. Even with the shorter hairstyle and slightly darker colouring of the eyes, there was no mistaking their relationship.
“I’m Tara.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Beth waited so see how Lydia was going to introduce her.
Lydia closed the chalet door and turned back towards them. “Tara, this is Beth. The friend I told you about.”
“All good things, I hope.” Beth smiled at the girl.
“She hasn’t told me anything. Just that you’re learning to play golf.”
“Well, that’s a start, I suppose.”
Lydia stepped off the porch expecting them to follow. “Shall we make a move? I’d like to meet my daughter’s fiancé before we sit down for dinner.”
They fell into step, with Tara in the middle.
“Beth’s an English teacher at the school.”
“Oh, so that’s how you know each other.” Tara touched Beth’s arm. “I think playing golf together will be a great way for getting her to relax.”
“From what I’ve learned this week, I don’t think golf is very relaxing.”
“If it gets her out of the house, it can only be a good thing. She works too hard.”
That she does, thought Beth. It didn’t look like she was going to get a chance to talk to Lydia on her own. And it was clear that Lydia wasn’t going to own up to knowing Beth any more intimately than just that they were colleagues. As she had feared, Lydia really wasn’t ready to come out to anyone, not even to her family members.
When they reached the manor house, Lydia headed straight for the door off the entrance hall marked “P
rivate”.
Tara turned to Beth and said, “Lovely to meet you. Will you be joining us for dinner?”
Beth almost laughed, faced with Tara’s friendly smile as her mother shook her head vigorously behind her. Beth smiled back. “Thanks, but I’m sure you have some catching up to do. I’m just going to rejoin the group in the bar.”
There wasn’t much time before they would be sitting down for the meal, but Beth ordered another glass of Sauvignon Blanc to help numb the hurt that was welling up again. When she looked over at the table she saw that her seat had been taken by the young girl, Freddie. Beth leaned against the bar and took a sip of the cold white wine. Jordan was talking and Freddie’s eyes were focused intently on her face. If Jordan turned her head, she would meet the girl’s lips and Beth had no doubt that was Freddie’s intention. She had observed the younger woman’s growing infatuation with the golf pro over the last few days. Freddie had even asked to be switched to their teaching group when Lydia hadn’t turned up on Wednesday. Jordan had deflected her by saying she would need to take it up with Jeff.
Beth picked up her glass and walked towards the table. “Hi. Can you squeeze one more in here?”
Jordan moved quickly to stand and offer her chair and went over to the next table to grab another one. Freddie didn’t look pleased when Beth sat in the hastily vacated seat but Jordan flashed her a quick smile when she sat down again in the space made as Liz moved closer to Tammy.
“So have I missed anything while I’ve been gone?” Beth wanted Freddie to know she was an interloper.
Tammy was the first to answer. “Not really. I was asking Jordan why we aren’t allowed to use a driver yet. I was looking forward to handling a Big Bertha.”
After the laughter died down, Jordan responded calmly, “I was explaining that most beginners struggle with using a driver effectively. You are best using a five iron off the tee initially and then maybe go onto a five or a three wood.”
“Why are they still called woods when they aren’t made of wood anymore?” Rosemary asked. Beth was sure that Tammy’s Big Bertha joke had gone over her head.
“Some people have started referring to them as metals, but I’m not sure that will catch on. The same could go for the irons. They used to all have steel shafts but now they’re mostly graphite.”
Beth could feel Freddie leaning forward to gaze past her at Jordan while she spoke. The temptation to elbow her in the chest was gaining momentum. She was saved from committing violence when Kevin announced from the bar that dinner was ready to be served if they would all like to make their way into the dining room.
†
After leaving Tara at her mother’s chalet, Freya walked on past the other guesthouses. There were two at the far end of the lane that hadn’t been completed. Freya sat on the porch steps of the first one she came to.
Building the golf resort was her dream, and hers alone. Tris could barely stand to spend more than a few days at his family’s ancestral home before he was bored and wanted to get back to his life in London.
Part of her dream was that Andi would someday join her. Andi’s career wasn’t over, by any means. At forty years old, she was still fit and healthy, able to compete with the youngsters coming through every year. Freya also had plans for an academy. She would like it to be the Andrea Mihajlovic Academy. That is, if Andi was planning on keeping her married name after the divorce. Further plans involved hosting a Ladies European Tour event. The course had been built to championship specifications. Temperley Cliffs had the potential, she thought, to be a host for the Ladies British Open, and possibly even the Solheim Cup.
Big dreams. All her dreaming and careful planning were coming to fruition. All but the most important one. The dream of having Andi by her side.
She brushed at the moisture on her cheek annoyed with herself. No use crying about it. Time to go back and play at being hostess.
Lydia, Tara, and Beth had just come out of the chalet as she made her way back down the lane. Interesting! Not wanting to intrude, Freya took a detour around the back of the manor. When she reached the western end of the house she looked up at the apartment windows. Tara would be introducing her mother to Dario. Freya wondered how Andi had got on with the boy. He had seemed very upset to find out his uncle was gay. Did he see it as a threat to his own masculinity? Or his concept of what a real man should be?
She decided not to go in just yet and seated herself on the wooden bench that encircled the big chestnut tree in the middle of the lawn. Sitting under this tree always had a calming effect on her. The first time she had seen it, when Tris brought her here for their supposed honeymoon, she had fallen in love with it. She was reminded of the many happy hours of her childhood when her father told her the Norse myths. The tree was surely Yggdrasil, the mighty ash tree that supported the universe. And she was Freya, goddess of love, and a Valkyrie, a female warrior. Perhaps her father had understood her nature long before she did. He left out the part about Valkyrie being virgins. And later, reading the myths for herself, she found a lengthier definition of her name. Freya was the goddess of love, but also lust, beauty, magic, fertility, wealth, war, and death. The Viking belief system didn’t mess about. You got the good with the bad.
Looking up, she saw Andi standing at the window. The lust part had certainly come to the fore when they met. And it hadn’t diminished over time, perhaps because their intimate encounters were rationed by Andi’s tour commitments. Would that change if they were together constantly?
†
Andi watched Dario’s face as his eyes followed Tara and Freya when they left the room. He was in love with the girl. She hoped Lydia wasn’t going to react badly to finding her daughter was engaged to a lad from the Balkans, although Croatians preferred to think of their country as part of central Europe.
“I still don’t understand.”
“What are you most upset about, Dario? Finding out that your uncle is gay, or that he’s retiring from football?”
“Both, I guess. All the boys at school envied me. Now they will be laughing.”
“What other people think doesn’t matter. You’ve chosen a different path. Training to be a chef. I’m sure your family and friends are just as proud of you.” Andi wondered if he would pick up on the duplicity of what she had just said. For twenty years she and Goran had been bothered about what others would think if they knew the truth about their relationship.
“It’s just…I feel like I never knew him, or you.”
“We’re still the same. I’m sorry though that we couldn’t have talked this through with you. I realise that hearing about it via Twitter would be a shock. It came as a shock to me when Goran came here last week to say he wanted a divorce. But at least he told me in person. I’m sure he would like to talk to you, Dario.”
“I tried to phone him. But there’s no answer.”
“Probably screening calls. The media are all over him right now. How about I try from my phone? Do you feel ready to speak to him?”
Dario nodded.
She retrieved her phone from the bedside table and brought it through to the living room. Sitting down next to Dario, she found Goran’s number in her contacts list and pressed it to make the call. He answered immediately.
“Andi, hi. Can’t talk for long. It’s a bit mad here at the moment.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t have any control over the media. At least you’re out of the way down there.”
“Does anyone know I’m here?”
“No. I haven’t told anyone.”
“Okay. I would appreciate it if you can keep a lid on my whereabouts. Anyway, there’s someone here who wants to speak to you.” She passed her phone to Dario. He took it eagerly. She heard the surprise in Goran’s voice when he introduced himself.
It didn’t seem right to listen in on their conversation so she took the empty glasses into the kitchen. She thought about helping herself to another beer, but decided it was too close
to dinnertime. Instead she washed up the glasses, put them away, and wiped the counter.
How long would she be able to stay out the public eye? Even if Goran hadn’t said anything, anyone here might have revealed her location. One of the golf pros or any of the students possibly couldn’t have resisted telling someone she was here. She had managed to avoid having any photos taken, or so she thought. Who knew these days when someone might take a sneaky selfie with her in the background?
A knock on the door to the apartment brought her back to the present. She opened it to find Tara and Lydia waiting there.
“Come on through. Dario’s talking to his uncle but they might have finished by now.”
He was sitting as she had left him but the phone was on the table showing a black screen.
“Okay, Dario?”
“Yes, fine. He couldn’t say much but we’re going to meet up when we go back to London tomorrow.”
“Excellent. And here’s someone else for you to meet.”
Andi went into the dining room, leaving Tara to do the introductions, and walked over to the window. Freya was sitting under her tree. They needed to talk as well. But every time they were in the same room together, Andi couldn’t find the words. Somehow, before leaving here in just over two weeks, she had to take the plunge. Freya looked up then. Something in her expression told Andi that maybe she had been thinking the same thing.
†
As everyone dutifully made their way out of the bar, Sam hung back, wanting to catch Beth on her own. Jordan seemed to have the same idea but she had Freddie tracking her every move. When they reached the hall, Jordan suddenly stopped. “Oh, damn. Something I need to check with Kevin. You go on ahead.” She disappeared back into the Library. Freddie looked bereft as she hesitantly carried on following the others towards the dining room.